A Tunisian NGO has set up a food bank that dispenses aid by text message to some 300 needy families rendered more vulnerable because of the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative, which had been long in the making, was finally launched at the end of April to coincide with the start of the...

Little Richard, the self-proclaimed "architect of rock ‘n’ roll" whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, has died Saturday. He was 87. Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend of Little...

Two policemen and four other people were killed in Afghanistan Saturday after a deadly clash at a public food donation in central Ghor province, officials said. Hundreds of people had gathered outside the governor's office in the provincial capital Firozkoh, where a Qatari group was...

Iran warned Saturday that coronavirus infections were rising in the southwest despite falls in other regions, as it announced more than 1,500 new confirmed cases. "All provinces are showing a gradual drop in new infections... except for Khuzestan, where the situation is still...

Global leaders marked 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe Friday, urging citizens to draw inspiration from the historic victory as the world battles against the coronavirus pandemic. With parades and commemoration events cancelled or scaled down as part of efforts to...

The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to launch an app this month to enable people in under-resourced countries to assess whether they may have the novel coronavirus, and is considering a Bluetooth-based contact tracing feature too, an official told Reuters Friday. The app will ask...

In full protective gear, two doctors climb the stairs four at a time. Their first task of the day: to test a woman who has had contact with a coronavirus patient in Istanbul. Visibly perturbed by the appearance of men in white bodysuits on her landing, the resident in the populous Fatih...

The United States recorded Friday its steepest job losses in history over the coronavirus pandemic as Europe moved to keep its borders shut for another month. Hopes have been rising that the worst of the global catastrophe, which has killed more than 270,000 people, has passed, and the...

President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman spoke by phone Friday and "reaffirmed the strong United States-Saudi defense partnership," the White House said, amid tensions over Saudi's oil output. The two men spoke after news the United States planned to withdraw two Patriot...

A second White House worker this week has tested positive for coronavirus, officials said Friday, even as President Donald Trump continued to go mask-free at a World War II commemoration with veterans in their 90s. A member of Vice President Mike Pence's staff was found to have coronavirus,...

Scientists the world over are scrambling to perfect an anti-viral treatment for the novel coronavirus, and following what might seem to be some unusual trails. Belgium's top researchers insist that their efforts to isolate an anti-body grown in a llama -- the Andean beast of burden -- is...

Canada shed three million jobs in the last two months due to the coronavirus lockdown, causing the unemployment rate to shoot up to 13 percent in April, the government reported Friday. That rate more than doubled, following a relatively small increase the previous month when restrictions...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Israel in a show of support for the new coalition government, resuming travel after a coronavirus suspension, the State Department announced Friday. The top US diplomat and staunch supporter of Israel will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...

 Kuwait will enact a “total curfew” from 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Sunday through to May 30 to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the Information Ministry said on Twitter on Friday. Further details of the curfew will be announced soon, it said.

Virus-hit Iran allowed worshippers to attend Friday prayers for the first time in more than two months, but the capital remains under restrictions amid the Middle East's deadliest coronavirus outbreak. Since reporting its first cases in mid-February, the Islamic republic has struggled to...

Tunisia said it inspected a Turkish plane headed for Libya with medical aid that landed at an airport near the border. The aircraft was authorised to land at Djerba airport in the country's south, the Tunisian presidency said in statements issued Thursday and Friday. Tunisia had...

The number of coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia exceeded 35,000 Friday as the kingdom struggles to get to grips with rising numbers of new infections. Officials reported 1,701 new cases , taking the total to 35,432. The country has recorded a daily average of around 1,500 new cases over the...

President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States was not behind a failed covert plot in Venezuela allegedly involving two Americans, but that if he did order an attack it would be an open "invasion." "If I wanted to go into Venezuela I wouldn't make a secret about it," he told Fox...

Lebanon has arrested the head of the money changers' union as it battles to stabilise the value of the country's nose-diving currency on the black market, a security official said Friday. "The head of the money changers syndicate, Mahmoud Mrad, was arrested (Thursday) at the request of...

Britain's Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden warned on Friday that the Premier League does not yet have the "green light" to resume but restated the government's hope that the season can be completed. Premier League clubs are due to meet on Monday to discuss the latest plans for "Project...